Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies – A Tested & Perfected Recipe

I recently posted about my experiment with making vegan peanut butter cookies that had mixed results. To recap, the cookies tasted fantastic, but they were extremely fragile and would crumble very easily. I decided to revisit this task by modifying a traditional recipe for peanut butter cookies. Although my previous batch were delicious, I was searching for that classic peanut buttery treat, and they didn’t exactly scratch that itch. I’m glad to report that I have found a delicious solution to this problem!

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Granulated sugar

1/2 Cup Brown sugar

1/2 Cup Peanut butter

1/4 Cup Vegetable shortening (Earth Balance makes some but any brand will do)

1/4 Cup Vegan butter sticks, softened, or coconut oil

Energ-G Egg Replacer

1 1/4 Cups All purpose flour

3/4 tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Salt

Instructions:

Heat oven to 375°

Follow package for making one egg substitute using Ener-G Egg Replacer, and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together both sugars, peanut butter, shortening, vegan butter or coconut oil, and egg substitute.

Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined.

Shape into about 1-inch balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Remove from oven and let stand on baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes:

I found that coconut oil does impart a flavor that, while not unpleasant, does distract a little from the peanut buttery-ness. For a more traditional flavor, stick with vegan butter spread or sticks.

I’ve read recipes that use maple syrup as the sweetener, which is really yummy, but makes the dough more wet. If you use this option, you may need to adjust the flour amount to account for the difference.